Runner profile optimisation of gravitational vortex water turbine

Abstract

This study discusses the numerical optimisation and performance testing of the turbine runner profile for the designed gravitational water vortex turbine. The initial design of the turbine runner is optimised using a surface vorticity algorithm coded in MATLAB to obtain the optimal stagger angle. Design validation is carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) Ansys CFX to determine the performance of the turbine runner with the turbulent shear stress transport model. The CFD analysis shows that by optimising the design, the water turbine efficiency increases by about 2.6%. The prototype of the vortex turbine runner is made using a 3D printing machine with resin material. It is later tested in a laboratory-scale experiment that measures the shaft power, shaft torque and turbine efficiency in correspondence with rotational speeds varying from 150 to 650 rpm. Experiment results validate that the optimised runner has an efficiency of 45.3% or about 14% greater than the initial design runner, which has an efficiency of 39.7%.